page_title: Arkansas Delta
section_title: Today
hierarchical_section_title: Arkansas Delta / Today
caption_attribution_description: English: Cotton in a field in Poinsett County, AR
context_page_description: The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox, says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep South."
  The region runs along the Mississippi River from Eudora north to Blytheville and as far west as Little Rock. It is part of the Mississippi embayment, itself part of the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain. The flat plain is bisected by Crowley's Ridge, a narrow band of rolling hills rising 250 to 500 feet above the flat delta plains. Several towns and cities have been developed along Crowley's Ridge, including Jonesboro. The region's lower western border follows the Arkansas River just outside Little Rock down through Pine Bluff. There the border shifts to Bayou Bartholomew, stretching south to the Arkansas-Louisiana state line.
  While the Arkansas Delta shares many geographic similarities with the Mississippi Delta, it is distinguished by its five unique sub-regions: the St. Francis Basin, Crowley's Ridge, the White River Lowlands, the Grand Prairie and the Arkansas River Lowlands.
context_section_description: The Arkansas Delta economy is still dominated by agriculture. The main commodity crop is cotton; other crops include rice and soybeans.  Catfish farming has been developed as a new source of revenue for Arkansas Delta farmers, along with poultry production.
  The Delta has some of the lowest population densities in the American South, sometimes fewer than 1 person per square mile. Slightly more than half the population is African American, reflecting their deep history in the area. Eastern Arkansas has the most cities in the state with majority African-American populations.  Urbanization and the shift to mechanization of farm technology during the past 60 years has sharply reduced jobs in the Delta. People have followed jobs out of the region, leading to a declining tax base. This hampers efforts to support education, infrastructure development, community health and other vital aspects of growth.  The region's remaining people suffer from unemployment, extreme poverty, and illiteracy.
  The Delta Cultural Center in Helena seeks to preserve and interpret the culture of the Arkansas Delta along with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff's University and Cultural Museum.  The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff is charged with highlighting and promoting works of Delta artists.
  The ivory-billed woodpecker, which had not been sighted since 1944 and is believed to be extinct, was reportedly seen in a swamp in east Arkansas in 2005.
caption: Cotton fields in Poinsett County.  This flat, rural landscape is typical of the Arkansas Delta
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